Caught in a Trap, the new piece which for a
while has superseded the stock comedies at the Haymarket, is a pleasant bagatelle—from the French of course, well put on the stage, and played in a lively manner. It is amusing to see Mrs. NISBETT disguised, or rather un- disguised, as a peasant boy, with a bush of foxy hair, outwitting WESTER, a military Marquis, who has taken the Count her husband prisoner. When the libertine captor comes to her chateau to make a conquest of her charms, he is "caught in a trap "—her beauty being the bait—and starved into submission. BUCKSTONE, the ever-hungry valet of the Marquis, is caged too ; and is condemned to earn his supper at a spin- ning-wheel, while his master appeases the inexorable Penelope by working at the tambour-frame. Mrs. NISBETT'S manner as the peasant was not that of a sheepish rustle; and her laughter was the loud exult- ing merriment of a woman triumphant, not the silly giggle of a half- witted boy : but the audience were so carried away by her gay animal spirits, that nothing seemed wanting to their enjoyment. WEBSTER played the Marquis with ease and discretion, though he showed more of the soldier than the courtly gallant ; and BUCKSTONE made the most of a solitary starveling joke on his insatiate stomach. Miss Jou.s. BENNETT looked more like the rustic lass she assumed to be than the "maid of honour" she was ; neither did Mr. H. Hoax as the captive Count do credit to his title. The opening-scene, in which a throng tat peasants vend fruit and vegetables in full chorus, is attractive both to the eye and ear.
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